Hello everyone :)
So, I haven't really had much time to write... let's see what I can do today.
After we got back from our amazingly fun and incredibly adventurous (kidding) road trip, Morgane and I spent a couple of days in Vancouver before she had to fly out to Toronto and then back to France. I even tried Sushi - and, considering that I only tried it once when I was 15 and HATED it with a passion, I think I can be quite proud of myself for giving it another chance. I'm still not a big fan, but at least now I consider it okay food, and I anyone ever INSISTED on going to a Sushi place with me, I'd find something I could eat.
After Morgane left (on the 2nd of june), I took the ferry over to Victoria, B.C.'s capital, located on the beautiful Vancouver Island. Originally, I had planned to stay for 3 nights, but it ended up being 6... I hadn't stayed in one place for longer than 1-2 nights since mid-april - I just needed a tiny break from the constant moving around. Also, the place I wanted to go to next was supposed to have snow the time that I planned to be there, and since everything you CAN do there is outdoors, it really didn't make much sense to go. So I postponed it for a couple of days. Victoria is a nice little city - except for the drug addicts... much like Vancouver, really.

(the Legislative Building in Victoria by night... some 3000 lightbulbs)
They like the mild climate. I took a free tour of the Legislative Building, lay down in a park to read a book (!), walked around the city, went to the Royal B.C. Museum (very interesting), and (even more interesting and SO much fun!): to the Bug Zoo. Basically a place where they have a lot of (fairly big) bugs - you know, spiders, a praying mantis, giant millipedes, that sort of thing :) So I got to hold a millipede that (curled up) was slightly bigger than the palm of my hand and whose feet felt like a little hard brush moving across your skin. And other animals, too... By the time we left there, I actually LIKED bugs!

Millipede - pretty cool, eh?
Oh, right, I forgot. I met a couple of people at the hostel. A German girl who was there for work and travel, and then a Korean girl (Han Im), an English guy, Will, and finally a French guy named Thomas who was planning to ried through the Coastal Mountains on his bike and camp there, and had brought neither a warm sleeping bag nor any warm clothes to speak of - since it was summer, he thought! I really hope he didn't freeze to death... Anyway, so I ended up spending a day with the latter 3. In the evening, we went on a tour of the city called "Ghostly Walks". Basically, they walk you around the city and tell you ghost stories and stories about (supposedly) haunted houses! The two guys who were doing it are (when they're not doing the tour) actors for a theater company in Victoria or play historical figures in the Legislative Building where they walk up to visitors to yell at them or the like. So, long story short, they did a REALLY good job, it was very entertaining! :)
I also went hiking one day with a man in his 60's or 70's who works for Parks Canada, Colin. He told us a lot about the island, vegetation and animals, as well as the Natives' history etc. Also, he had quite the life, being navigator on the Canadian equivalent of the Air Force Once, or doing Search&Rescue for ships in the Arctic. Very interesting.
On the 8th, I finally got on the ferry and eventually the overnight bus to Lake Louise, Alberta: bye bye, B.C., hello again, Rocky Mountains.. and a different time zone, once more. Canada has six of them... although I wouldn't exactly count Newfoundland time, because (for some reason) it's only HALF an hour ahead of Nova Scotia time... I don't understand. Oh, well. And I've been to all of them (time zones, I mean) in the past 2,5 months... plus one more, since we went to Alaska and that has a time zone of its own.
Lake Louise is very pretty - not so much the town, since there's not that much there, but the scenery is stunning, even when it's grey and rainy (as it was when I was there). Most of the trails you can hike were still closed because of snow, one because of a grizzly bear and her two cubs... but I made due with what was open and safe, and had a pretty good time doing that! I also went horseback riding up to Lake Agnes (which is still three quarters frozen), which saved me from having to walk up that steep trail myself, heehe. I really enjoyed it - except for the moment when my horse got itchy and decided it would be a good idea to walk us off the side of a cliff. It took me a while to convince it that that was NOT the best idea, and by that time we were already starting to slide downwards, with only two hooves left on the trail. Quite the adrenaline rush. But we survived, and I don't hold it against the horse... too much. Had it done that anywhere else I would have laughed at it, but, in this instance, we were on a mountain trail and the prancing around got us close to falling down the cliff! Still, a very nice ride, very nice guides... and a very experienced and fun-to-ride horse.

Me on the horse (Champ was his name)... and, again, a computer that won't let me turn the picture. Sorry.
The people at the hostel were extremely nice, I (tried to) watch Germany play Croatia on the TV in the Cafe, but we all thought it was the later game, so we missed it. But I had a really nice conversation with the night security guy who had dropped in for coffee until my bus left at 4:30, and one of the waitresses I met again later (in Calgary), which was also quite nice. Nice people, the people of Lake Louise.
After Lake Louise, I wanted to go straight to Calgary, but stopped in touristy Banff instead, which is on the way. Again, much like Lake Louise, a small town in the middle of the Rockies. But this one is PACKED with tourists, for the skiing in the winter and for hiking and their own hot springs in the summer. Crazy. I went on a nice hike there, though, met a nice girl from England (who I watched some Soccer with), and saw a snake - so it was worth it to stop for two nights. The weather was also fairly nice, which made it so much better.

Case in point: Banff, Rockies, beautiful weather.

And, the snake... okay, now I'm just trying to put in more pictures to balance out the HUGE amounts of text I'm producing. Seriously.
After Banff I made it to Calgary - which was the first place I've been on this whole trip that made me nervous. LOTS of drunk people (the homeless, jobless kind), very in-your-face. I felt quite uncomfortable. Also, over the weekend, the downtown area is practically dead (except for said drunk people). It only came to life on monday, when people came in from the suburbs to go to work. What WAS nice about Calgary, though, was the Olympic Park. The had the Olympic Winter Games there in 1988, and the park is still there, not only as a training ground for athletes, but also for visitors. So I walked around there for a bit with a guy I met in the hostel (also German), Nick, we took the elevator up to the top of the ski jump tower, that sort of stuff. it was quite interesting. These were the Olympic Games where the Jamaican bobsleigh team had a fairly serious accident. Also the movie "Cool Runnings" was filmed on the premises later (since it is about exactly that Jamaican team at the Olympic Games).


Canada Olympic Park, Calgary - host of the Olympic Winter Games in 1988

See that big one? That's where we went up. Seriously, I do NOT understand how anyone in their right mind would voluntarily jump off THAT with just a pair of skis on!

But, then again... YIPPIEEEE!!!!
Regina was the next (very short) stop on my way back East... only 24 hours. I took the overnight Greyhound from Calgary and got into Regina at 8 in the morning, where I checked into the hostel that turned out to be a adorable little old heritage house. I walked around the city for a bit, which is nice enough, they have a BEAUTIFUL park and a quite nice Old Government House. I took a tour there, too, and afterwards chatted with the tour guide (who's originally from Quebec) and the guy at the front desk (who was a bus driver for Greyhound for 35 years) for a while... they had some interesting stories to tell! Then I took the Greyhound to Winnipeg the next day, not overnight, for a change. For the first 5 hours I sat next to a girl who had just come back from a church convention in Israel - interesting. And, again, a time zone change.
Winnipeg is considerably bigger than Regina, and busier, too. Here, I slowed down a little more. I had booked three nights (because I didn't want to get back into Toronto before sunday), and spent my time walking around the city and along the river. They have a whole park with big bear sculptures they painted according to themes: like the "aurora bearealis" or the "prairie bear"... what's it with Canadians and this need to put up weird statues and monuments everywhere they can?! I haven't figured that out yet. I just know I've seen examples of it everywhere I went.

hm... I don't know, really. Construction bear, maybe?
So that's it, pretty much. Tomorrow I'll hop on the bus back to Toronto (1 day and 7 hours... heaven *sigh*), and then I wom't do much - see some people again, go to my favorite places, repack my things for the flight back home... I most likely will make a day trip to Niagara Falls, since I haven't been there yet and it's quite close to Toronto, really. And I MIGHT drive up to Ottawa for 1-2 days, but I'm not sure yet if I'll be able to fit that into my "schedule" ;)
Yup.. and then I'll hop back on a plane to Germany on July 4th. So, I guess I will see you guys (most of you anyway) in two weeks?... Or maybe a little after that :)
Wow, that will be strange, going back... we'll see how that works out!! :)
Looking forward to seeing you guys!
Take care!

I think the Yukon is one of my three favorite places in the world now - amazing!!! Our trip turned out pretty well, we only had rain on one or 2 days, and mostly when we were driving anyway. 6000km, woohoo! Vancouver Island was very moist, but then it's mostly temperate rainforest, so what else could you expect? It also has the highest density of black bears and cougars in all of Canada, however we only saw 2 black bears in our 4 days there. The 16 hour ferry ride up to Prince Rupert was nice, lots of waterfalls and fjords, since the ferry makes it's way along and through the fjords and islands along the coast of B.C.
Cassiar Highway turned out to be better than we had expected - as far as road conditions were concerned. The scenery is absolutely stunning, and we had to "wildlife days"! On one, we saw... I think close to 15 black bears, the other just a mix of everything: fox, bear, caribou, mink... the only annoying thing about the bears is that they might decide to let their cubs play exactly where the hiking trail you wanted to take goes through - so some trails we couldn't take because the people in the visitor center advised against it (because of bears and cubs in hte area). Oh well.
And even though it was only may, it already didn't get dark in the Yukon - well, the sun set, but there was always light! I read a book outside without a flashlight at 11:30p.m.! We got something that resembled dusk around midnight, and then the sun came up again around 3:30 in the morning! That makes it a little difficult to sleep in a tent!

... a black bear, on the side of the road

The Yukon, close to the border to Alaska. While we were up there already, we decided to make a quick detour one day and cross the U.S. border into Alaska! Very funny experience, too - turns out, the U.S. custom officers didn't think it quite so funny as I did when Morgane (a French girl I was traveling with) didn't know who "that guy on the picture next to Bush" was - Dick Cheney... hihi.

THis is the Carcross Desert in the Yukon - the smallest desert in the world - we almost missed it, driving past ;)

This is the SS Klondike - Morgane and I did a tour on it. It's one of the original steam boats that operated on the Yukon river and brought people, but more importantly gold and other resources down the river from Dawson in the North to Whitehorse. Interesting... and also a HUGE wheel!!!

Pretty big, huh? That small thing at the bottom, that's me. Sorry the picture is sideways, but the library computer won't let me turn it.
In Watson Lake, which is the last city on the Alaska Highway in the Yukon before getting back into B.C., they have a signpost forest. It got started by an American soldier around the time of World War II, when they were building the Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek, B.C. to Fairbanks, Alaska. Since then, people from all over the world have put up signs saying where they were visiting from, or just other funny stuff. Today, there are more than 70,000 signs in that signpost forest! So, of course - we had to make our own!!!

This is us, with our sign in front of the Watson Lake signpost forest. From left to right: Sara (Germany), Morgane (France), and myself.

We drove back down to Vancouver through B.C. Interior, and decided to stop at Liard Hot Springs for a quick swim! And "hot" is no joke - this pool you see on the picture has 49degrees Celsius!!! But it's very relaxing for your muscles!

And, even though it never quite got dark up there, the sun still sets at this time of year! :)
On our way back, we also saw a couple of wild buffalos!

And the whole trip we saw incredibly HUGE trees and a LOT of waterfalls!!! (again, sorry for not turning the picture).


I'm running out of time, the library computer is cutting me off.
take care!!

Sorry about that. I didn't get around to posting any pictures, I was too busy moving out... and right now I'm in a public library and don't have my camera cable with me, so, again, no pictures.
I had a couple of days in Toronto, which I basically spent moving out of my room in our lovely appartment and trying to reorganize our British Columbia trip, since Dani decided that she would rather not go, and told me 2 days before I left for Edmonton. So I was a little pressed for time.
We managed to go out to a pub though the evening before I left - just my roommates, Julie, Aaron, Greg, Jan (a friend from Konstanz who just moved here) etc. - I really appreciated everyone who made it... especially since the TTC had been on strike until that day! So no buses, no streetcars, no subways. We actually took a cab back from the airport.
On april 29th I got on the Greyhound bus, and spent my next 2 days and 2 hours on there... travelling almost through all of Canada (East to West) - from Toronto, Ontario to Edmonton, Alberta. And let me tell you something: I don't sleep too well on Greyhound buses. It's very bumpy, and they keep stopping and turning on the lights. Also, the Prairies (Manitoba and Saskatchewan): flat. There's nothing else to say about that, really, and it gets boring after about 15minutes. Winnipeg seems to be a nice city, though, I think I'll stay there for a couple of days on my way back.
I met up with 17 other people from the MacMaster (that's another university in Ontario, they organized the trip) University's Outdoor Club, and we headed out to the Rocky Mountains for 2 weeks of camping, climbing, hiking, and TREMENDOUS FUN!!! We all had a really good time, the group of people was just amazing. I love them all, sincerely - although I wouldn't want to share a tent with Nick, and he DID almost kill us while driving ;)
The trip didn't go according to plan AT ALL, because there were highly unusual amounts of snow in the Rockies for that time of year, so we had to take it day by day and see how much snow we encountered and which hikes were doable. We got snowed in one night - meaning we arrived at a hostel, and there was no snow, we woke up 10 hours later and there was about 50cm of snow all around - and it didn't stop snowing all day! So we spent another day and night at the hostel, since there was no way we could get the minivans we were driving out onto the highway through that kiond of snow. So, lots of showering, snowball fights, and HOTTUB SESSIONS!!! In the snow - beautiful. Our last couple of days our base camp was in a rainshadow valley (the Kootenay Plains), which means the clouds go around the valley but not OVER, so there's barely any rain or snow. We also went climbing on day. I went up a good way until my knee wouldn't support my body weight anymore (it's been acting up a little, so I didn't do all the hikes on the trip and have been in some pain, but manageable), and that despite my considerable fear of heights! I was very proud of myself :)
I have to cut this a bit short, I'm running out of time on the library computer... let's see...
We saw a lot of wildlife: a black bear, moose, elk, deer, different kinds of birds, big horn sheep... and I saw a wolf, when I was hiking on my own! Very exciting. No cougars, though - which we were all thankful for, I think. It got pretty cold at night, too - about -4 degrees celsius a couple of nights.
And it turns out, you don't really notice how dirty you are when you're outside camping in the middle of nowhere and everyone else is just as filthy... it did feel a little weird though when we got back into Edmonton and civilization. Took me about 10 minutes to scrub off all the layers of grease and dust on my face!
On may 14th, I took the overnight bus to Vancouver, and have been in Vancouver ever since. Very beautiful here, especially with
the weather being sunny around 22 degrees and everything in bloom! I got a little sunburned yesterday, the intensity of the sun was a little unexpected.
Tomorrow morning, I will (once more) pick up a rental car, and Sara, Morgane (a French Exchange student at York University) will head North, over Vancouver Island, then up to the Yukon and (hopefully) we'll squeeze in a quick visit to Alaska. We will return the car to Vancouver on may 30th. Again, lots of camping and hiking ahead of me in those 2 weeks... and lots more wildlife, too! I think they have a lot more Grizzlies in the Yukon... no worries, we'll be careful. Maya (our trip leader in the Rockies) gave us an extensive bear talk, we know what to do to avoid being eaten! ;)
That's it, for the next 2 weeks at least! Again, sorry about the lack of pictures... maybe I can put some up beginning of june, when I'm in a hostel with internet access... we'll see.
Cheers,

stef

Phew... and the travelling begins!
I'm in Halifax right now, and have been driving around Atlantic Canada (the East Coast) for the past 9 days... 5813km behind the wheel... I think I need a break from driving, hihi!
I'll be back in Toronto for 2 days (the 27th and the 28th), I'll try to put up some pictures and tell you some more details then.
Basically, we flew into Halifax, then drove down the east coast of Nova Scotia, then up the west coast, over to Moncton in New Brunswick, then to Fredericton in New Brunswick, then over to Prince Edward Island (but only for 1,5 days), then we drove to North Sydney, Nova Scotia and took the overnight ferry up to Newfoundland. We spent 4 days in Newfoundland, took the overnight ferry back, had a look around Cape Breton Island (the northern part of Nova Scotia), and then we drove back into Halifax this morning, returned the car... and now we have 2 days to have a look around Halifax before we fly back to Toronto on the evening of the 26th.
I'm doing well - I have some bruises from challenging (but awesome!) hiking experiences and a little tired from all the driving, but other than that, I really enjoyed myself!
Okay, I'll try to put up pictures soon, promise!

Phew... much better. A sandwich can do wonders!
On march 22nd, the international office at York offered a day trip to the maple Syrup Festival at Bronte Creek. It was so much fun (even though it was cold), and very interesting! Now I know why maple syrup is so expensive! The trees you can get the sap out of only grow (basically) in the Great Lakes region, and you can only harvest the sap for 6-8 weeks a year! One tree gives enough sap for 1 litre of syrup per season! So, no wonder it doesn't come cheap. As you can probably tell, we took a tour where they explained to us how maple syrup was made, how it was made 300 years ago, etc. After that, we walked around, looking at an old farmhouse, had some pancakes with (what else?) maple syrup, and managed to find the ONLY tree in Bronte Creek that was dripping sap!! It was just a little too cold yet for the trees to start dripping, but we found the first one (after looking into many empty buckets)! Very cool.

Our tour guide, Kip, is showing us how maple syrup was made... I think 200 years ago.

mmmmmmmmh... sugar!

Beautiful Bronte Creek Park on a beautiful winter's, almost spring, day.
That saturday evening, my two German friends (Betti & Uli) came back from their road trip. And since the weather was good, we decided to go skating on the harbourfront the next day, before they had to get on their flght back to Germany. The weather was beautiful! I ended up not skating too much, since a guy from India joined us and he had barely ever skated before, so for some reason, i ended up trying to teach him how to skate... instead of Marc, who is an actual hockey player... anyways.

The Natrel skating rink at the Toronto harbourfront. In the background, you can see bits of Lake Ontario and the Toronto islands.
Finally, it was "Earth Hour" on saturday, the 29th, so Dani, Marc and I went to Nathan Philips Square to hear some bands play (Nelly Furtado and The Philosopher Kings played a couple of songs, and the mayor held a speech) and watch the city go dark for 1 hour, as a reminder that we should conserve energy to save the world... and stop global warming... all that good stuff. Quite a few buildings went dark, so that was an unusual sight for Toronto at night, since usually it's bright as day. Also, it's weird to me that you actually seem to have to remind Canadians to turn off their lights when they leave their home - I've been doing that since I was a kid! But then I come home from school or wake up in the morning and my roommates have left at least 3 lights on in our appartment, and suddenly I think, that, maybe, Canadians really need to learn how to do that.
And that's it for now: I have my final paper I hope to hand in today, and then it's mostly organizing stuff until I leave for Halifax on the 15th. Hope the weather is good enough for us to go hiking - and I hope there won't be any blizzards, since I will be driving *sigh*
After my east coast trip i'll be heading west, and then I should be back in Toronto around june 29th... hopefully with tons of great pictures and even greater memories!
Until next time!

Omg, things are happening fast now! So, we went out for my roommate Kaela's birthday, and we drove in a "limo"... hahaha!
When my friends from Germany got here saturday, march the 8th, I picked them up from the airport.. and didn't really do much with them after that for the next couple of days, because I was so sick I got dizzy whenever I tried standing up. Great. Anyways, so they went off to explore Toronto on their own, and by tuesday I was feeling better, so Kaela, Betti, Uli and I went to the Toronto Zoo. It was a beautiful day out - very sunny, fairly mild temperatures, and lots of snow! The unfortunate part about going to the zoo in winter, and when they're doing some construction, is, that you don't get to see all of the animals. The grizzlies were hibernating, the polar bears were somewhere in the North because their space at the zoo was under contruction, the elephants weren't on display that day, and so on and so forth. Anyway, we still saw some amazing animals, and I think everyone enjoyed it. The gorillas were awesome! And the zoo has an Orang-Utan that was born in Borneo in 1958!!!!

Apparently, they think we're just as interesting as we think they are...

Watch out! Danger!

Go for the eyes, go for the eyes!

Betti and Uli, standing on the zoo's equator... and Kaela, waving in the background

A cheetah in the snow... now here's something you don't see everyday!
Oh, and Betti and I ate crickets covered in chocolate - actually, it doesn't taste that bad.
Betti and Uli left early thursday to go on their Ontario roadtrip, I went to school to write an exam, and then headed off on my own roadtrip - to Chicago, for St. Patrick's day! It was Matthias and Sara, who did the driving, and then Ian (a British guy Sara knows) and Florian (a French guy, also a friend of Sara's). We drove all night and arrived in Chicago around 9 a.m. on friday morning. We spent friday exploring Chicago - that was a trip down memory lane. Kind of weird, but also kind of nice - I really like Chicago! And we had 10°C, plants were growing - it felt like spring! I had completely forgotten that there was anything other than winter... it was nice. Saturday we got up early, because that was the day of the St. Patrick's day celebrations - meaning there was a parade, and, much more importantly: the dye the river green!!! And when I say green, i mean BRIGHT green! So that was fun! I also went to about 10 different shops to find Converse for my sister, but it turns out none of them had the ones she wanted... that sucked. We ended up not going to any bars, because two of us weren't 21 yet, so they wouldn't let them in. We went out for dinner instead and then bought some beer on the way home. So we spent that night playing card games, laughing a lot and having a beer in our room back at the hostel. On sunday, we went up on the Hancock Building, picked up a dozen donuts at Dunkin Donuts (YAY!!) and then started our drive back. We didn't get back on time, so we ended up driving everybody home because they had missed their last bus - and I didn't get back home to Toronto until the next morning, I crashed at Matthias' place - on the up side, that way he didn't have to drive on his own for 2 hours after driving for most of the day.

from left to right: Ian, Flo, Matthias, and Sara - in the background, the Chicago skyline.

Even the dogs get dressed up for St. Patrick's day!

Me, in front of the green river (the day AFTER they dyed it!!)

In case it doesn't come out on the previous picture: THIS is how green the river was!

... St. Patrick's day.
I got back to Toronto on monday the 17th - and my Jazz choir's concert was on the 18th. The concert went well, we had fun - it was a little sad to say goodbye to some of them, though. Afterwards, Dani and I met up with Steffen, who'd come to the city from Waterloo to show his friends that were visiting from Germany around.

The man flailing his hands in front of us is Bob, our conductor/professor. The black&white shirt, that's me.
Okay, once again, I'm getting hungry. I'll tell you about the rest of it later... meaning everything after march 18th up until now. Hope you guys are well!

After coming back from Québec, Dani and I spent most of january on York University's own skating rink - because, let's face it, you can't be in Canada and leave without knowing how to skate (or be remotely good at it)!! :)
I also went paintballing with ISAY, the International Student Association at York - for those of you who don't know what paintballing is: basically you run around an area with towers and stairs and rocks and pillars with a mask covering your face and a gun in your hand and try to shoot people. With paintballs. Once you get hit (which you can tell, for one, by the paint on your overall, and two, from the PAIN!), you're out of the game until the next round. I must say, I've never been a fan of shooting at people - and still am not. But, at least, getting hit HURTS LIKE HELL, so it's a little closer to reality than, say, laser tag, where all that happens once you get hit is that your vest vibrates for about 5 seconds. So this is a lot better. Some of us went home with serious bruises, though. One girl had a HUGE bump on her forehead, and I had 3 nasty bruises on my thighs that wouldn't go away for the next 2 weeks *sigh* Who knew a weekend activity could hurt so much ;) It still was an interesting experience, no doubt. And I got a couple of guys pretty good, hehe!

Lots of paintball guns

gotta love the mask :p
Marc, Dani, Anja, Henrique and some other people went down to Nathan Philips Square one night to skate next to the City Hall at night. Dani took a couple of pictures since she wasn't skating due to a twisted ankle. And, MAN, was it FREEZING!!! -12°C plus windchill... we skated for about one hour and then spent 1,5 hours in the Tim Horton's across the street to warm back up (Tim Horton's is a Canadian coffee shop chain... kind of like Starbucks, only a lot cheaper). But it was SO worth it - skating really is turning out to be a fun group activity... even if I still haven't figured out how to skate backwards.

The skating rink at Nathan Philips Square. The kind of small old building in the back is the City Hall.

left to right: Anja, Mark, myself (in front), Henrique.
Dani and I also went to see our university's own male hockey team, the York Lions, play (and triumph over) the Guelph Gryphons at York... university hockey. Pretty good.
At the beginning of february, my roommate Kaela won tickets for a musical that came to Massey hall in Toronto for a day, so she invited me, her friend Olivia and her friend to come see it. It was called "Drum", and more or less explained the history of Canada's immigrants (and Canada itself) through their different drumming styles and traditional songs. It was amazing, very, very beautiful drumming - and it was educational as well, since I learned something about Canada's history! So there you go, two in one! I also was lucky enough to have Olivia and her friend there with us, since they are both (partly) First Nations, so natives, if you will, and could explain that part of the musical and the songs they played in more detail.
For Valentine's Day, Kaela, Olivia and I had a small girls' night in, meaning we rented two movies and bought some food for the raclette grill and some chocolate for Kaela's mini fondue - so we ended up eating a lot and chatting and all that good stuff. We saw a good movie, too: it's called "Once". We had to watch it with subtitles, though, because even Kaela couldn't understand the main character's Irish accent... anyway. I think it just won an Oscar this year for Best Original Song... so, go, check it out! It's a really nice, independent movie. Nothing spectacular, no buildings blowing up, no car races - but some very good songs and good acting.
Oh, speaking of good music: last friday (the 22nd) I went to see a matchbox Twenty concert, which I've been wanting to do for YEARS but they never played Germany! So, I went, the concert was soooo much fun, really good music, and I met some nice people who had come down all the way from Ottawa JUST to see the opening act - which was ALANIS MORRISSETTE!!! Sweet!! So I ended up getting two really good concerts for one.
On Saturday, Matthias came over from Waterloo, so we went to a small league hockey game (the Toronto Marlies vs. Ottawa), with very CHEERFUL cheerleaders and big stuffed mascots, then we went and grabbed some food, I popped back home to get changed, and then Matthias, Dani, myself and Jule, Dani's friend visiting from Germany went out dancing - and, guess what?! I found my FAVORITE club in Toronto!! ... only took me until 8 weeks before I leave Toronto to find it... way to go with the timing. Anyway. It was a fun night, and we got home late... or early, depends on your point of view. On Sunday, we went to my first ever live NBA game: the Raptors vs. the NY Nicks. Apparently, the Toronto Raptors are the only Canadian team to play in the NBA. It was a good game (those guys are TALL), the Raptors won, of course.
So, that about raps up my first two months of 2008. I have some exams coming up, Kaela's and Dani's birthdays, and two friends will visit me for a couple of days - so yay!!
I have a little more than 40 days left of my time here in Toronto... I guess it's starting to hit me. I think that is going to be more difficult then maybe I'd anticipated, leaving is.

Saturday was the lsat day of our Québec trip. Before we started home, we made two (more or less) short pit stops, though:
We went to see the Chute Montmorency (a waterfall) just outside Québec City - it's higher than Niagara Falls... not as wide, though (I think). The impressive thing about it was that more than half of it was frozen. We even so some people ice climbing up the waterfall!

Chute Montmorency. See the bridge at the top? We went up there, too.

By the way: this is our faithful little car.
Our second stop was at the Hôtel a Glace, the Ice Hotel. There are three real Ice Hotels in the world (made completely of ice, no metal posts or anything supporting them): The one in Québec, the one in Sweden (which is the first one ever built),.. and another one, but I can't remember where. Anyway, the idea is to build GIGANTIC blocks of ice (different densities, different kinds of snow used etc.), and build a whole hotel out of it! Inside, the beds, the tables, the bar, everything is made of snow and ice. Except for the washrooms and the hottubs outside. When they finish building the hotel, they build an ice sculpture garden next to it, as well. However, it wasn't finished yet when we went there. They had just had their first guests the night before - which was a good thing, though, because, although we didn't see the sculpture garden, we got to see the people at work and experience firsthand how they build the hotel and decorate the insides! Very impressive. Also very cold. I think our guide said that the inside temperature, no matter how cold it may be outside, is always -5°C. On the upside, they give you very warm sleeping bags if you stay there for a night. They can accomodate up to a little over 70 people in about 45 rooms. Apart from the rooms they have their hottubs, a bar, and a disco... and, since this year is the 400th anniversary of Québec, a whole wing of the hotel was decorated accordingly.

A sculpture in the entrance hall. I stuck my tongue to it... wouldn't stick. Our guide said that you can only freeze your tongue to metal (like a lamppost) if it's cold enough, not to ice itself... and of course I had to test that theory. Turns out he was right!

They actually have artists come in and decorate the different rooms - so no room looks like the other!

One of the beds. Made of ice, some sort of plastic or thermo springbox on top to keep the cold from coming through, and then a bunch of pieces of fur.

The bar/club. Even the alcohol is served in glasses made of ice.

The four of us, with an ice glas (in Anja's hands, on the right), inside the club... could be difficult for anyone to dress slutty (or avoid a red nose) with those temperatures!
And then we made our way back to Toronto. We got into some bad weather on our way back - a little test for my driving skills and nerve - but we got home okay, I dropped everyone off and was home just before midnight.
So that was our trip! I returned the car the next day, and was back to class on monday.
But there's more to come for january!!!

So, they day after all the winter activity madness, we took the time to have a look around Québec City. SUCH a beautiful little town!!! And about as "European" as it gets over here... meaning quite a lot of old little houses and alleys etc.
There's the Cathedral Notre Dame - very nice inside, and has a very interesting history: it got burned down very shortly after every time they finished working on it... 3 or 4 times, if i remember correctly. And I used what's left of my pathetic French skills to ask someone a question - and they actually understood what I was saying! I didn't see that coming, but it felt good :)
After walking all around Old Québec (upper and lower city), and having lunch at a tiny place where one of the hosts at the door was from the Elsass (and, of course, started speaking German immediately), we went down to the old harbour and took some nice group pictures in the snow (with Chateau Frontenac in the background, of course). Down at the harbourfront we met an old man who told us all kinds of interesting things about Québec: such as that at Québec City is where the St. Lawrence River is the narrowest, which is why it was the perfect place to defend your settlement - against the British, for example. And you could make everyone who wanted to pass with goods pay taxes :) Or, that, even some 200km away from the ocean, you can see the tides when you look at the St. Lawrence river, because whenever there's high tide the ice floes actually flow UP the river, not down with the current!
Up on the promenade there's an ice slide, so Anja and I got one of those old wooden sleds and went down - sooo much fun!! we were the fastest at first, but then kind of slow in the end, and we didn't make it as far as the 2 men next to us... we blame it on our lack of weight, hihi.
To finish of a really nice day, we took the ferry to the other side of the St. Lawrence, to get a nice view of Québec at night - BEAUTIFUL! Everything is lit up, and the chateau and the citadel and the big walls make it look like a fortress. And the ferry ride itself was memorable, since the river was frozen over, so the ferry had to make its way through the ice and push aside the ice floes. If anyon of you has seen the movie "Titanic" and remembers the creaking and moaning sound the boat made when it brushed up against the iceberg - that's the noise the ferry made from time to time. Creepy.
Okay, pictures:

The Chateau Frontenac - it is a hotel now, and also the town's landmark.

Anja, myself and our map of the city - where to go next?

One of the streets in lower Québec. So adorable!! ... and so full of snow!

The city's defense - way back when. Up on the city walls (Upper Québec).

The ice slide!! Freshly made for us... only minutes before we went on they poured more water down the tracks.

Two girls and a wooden sled - here we go!!

Québec City at night (from the other side of St. Lawrence river). The big building to the right is Chateau Frontenac, the Citadel is on the very left. The very bright stretch in the middle are the city walls.

Our ferry is making its way through the ice...